


Malignant

by petersnotkingyet



Category: Graceland (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Coping, Grief, Mourning, basically I made up a reason for why Mike's character did a 180 between seasons, post-faith 7, season two spoilers, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 08:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2302742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petersnotkingyet/pseuds/petersnotkingyet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"During the autopsy, I found a malignant tumor in Agent Warren's brain."  The blood drained from Paul's face, but the ME continued to speak.  "It originally formed near his orbitofrontal cortex, but it had metastasized near his hypothalamus."</p>
<p>"You're saying the kid had fucking brain cancer?"</p>
<p>The ME confirmed it as if he wasn't rocking the foundations of Briggs's life.  "It was likely that he was experiencing headaches, fatigue, vomiting, and had difficulty regulating his emotions and making wise decisions.  It's also possible that he had a dramatic shift in personality within the past year.  Is this accurate?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Malignant

"Agent Briggs," the ME said cautiously. Once it'd come to light that Mike was a US federal agent, his body had been transported back to DC for the FBI medical examiner to preform an autopsy. Despite the bullet in his gut and the machine he had been hooked up to, Mike had died from not getting enough oxygen. It didn't take a genius to figure out how. The kid had been fine, and then Sid walked into the room. That combined with Mikey's borderline obsessive notes on the guy and the statement he'd tried to give after the incident with Sulla, before someone had written him off as being in shock, made it pretty clear which was the judge would rule. Briggs just wanted them to clear Warren's name before his family heard about all the people who'd been killed with his gun. "Has Agent Warren's behavior in the past several months been... unusual?"

"Unusual?" Briggs repeated hoarsely. The ME nodded.

"He could have been abnormally aggressive or had trouble making good decisions," the man continued, and Paul felt his throat tighten. The kid was fucking dead, and they were probing for more nails to put in his coffin.

"What the hell are you getting at?" the FBI agent growled.

"During the autopsy, I found a malignant tumor in Agent Warren's brain." The blood drained from Paul's face, but the ME continued to speak. "It originally formed near his orbitofrontal cortex, but it had metastasized near his hypothalamus."

"You're saying the kid had fucking brain cancer?"

The ME confirmed it as if he wasn't rocking the foundations of Briggs's life. "It was likely that he was experiencing headaches, fatigue, vomiting, and had difficulty regulating his emotions and making wise decisions. It's also possible that he had a dramatic shift in personality within the past year. Is this accurate?"

Briggs barely managed to force a nod. The only thing he could think about was how someone--fuck, everything was so messed up that he couldn't even remember who--had said that the old Mike Warren didn't exist any more. The Mike Warren who was starstruck to meet Briggs and cried when Eddie died and nearly got shot on his first day at work hadn't been around since he left for DC, but was that because of the kid growing up or a cluster of cells pressing on the wrong parts of his brain?

"Do you know if there's any reason Agent Warren didn't seek medical attention for his symptoms?"

"He already had stress headaches," Briggs croaked. The kid had never liked to complain, but Paul always noticed that he kept his lights dim and noise levels low when things were particularly hectic. "With everything going on, I... I guess he just thought they were normal."

The medical examiner was quiet for once, and Paul's throat was still tight, but it was no longer due to anger.

"How the hell am I supposed to take that? He went from being a fucking kid to being an ass, and I hated him, and now you're going to tell me that it wasn't his fault? That even if Sid hadn't smothered him, he could have died anyways?" But what right did Paul have to condemn Sid or Paige? He'd put a target on Mikey's back only a few weeks before.

"While his career would have been put on hold, I would estimate that Agent Warren had at least a 50% chance of surviving treatment for the tumor if he'd gotten medical attention within the next few months," the ME stated uselessly. "Even so, it's best to focus on the memories from before he began to be influenced by the tumor. You can't control your feelings about his affected behavior any more than Agent Warren could control what affected it."

"His name is Mike," Briggs growled. "Stop with the damn 'Agent Warren this' and 'Agent Warren that.' The kid was just Mikey."

Agent Warren sounded like the name of an agent who could burn bodies or punch dirty cops. Mikey was the kid who Paul had taught to surf and pick up girls at the bar. Agent Warren had called Briggs for a fake ID when he had a bullet in his gut, but Mikey had laid on the floor of a drug lord's house while Paul packed a towel onto the hole in his gut and smoothed his hair out of his face.

Mikey had been good and Agent Warren had been sick, but now Paul was just broken.


End file.
